


Dying is easy, young man (Living is harder)

by keepitdreamin



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Daredevil Bingo, Gen, throw the fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-13
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-10-04 02:30:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10265600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepitdreamin/pseuds/keepitdreamin
Summary: In the end, Jack takes the hit. He thinks of his son, he squares up, and he takes a dive.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Because apparently I have a lot of feelings about fictional dads who end up dying and leaving their kids fatherless because of ~pride~ or whatever.
> 
> Title from Hamilton "Right Hand Man"

In the end, Jack takes the hit. He thinks of his son; he squares up; and he takes a dive. After, Sweeney catches his eye across the room and nods smugly, and Jack looks away, feeling sick to his stomach. But he’s going to get his cut—and the bit extra he’d had Ed bet under a different name—and Jack’s going to be going home to his son soon, and really it’s the best deal all around.

Matt’s asleep when Jack gets home, curled up on the couch, glasses askew, the radio still on and intermittently bursting static. He wakes up when Jack crouches beside the couch and smooths his hair back. “Dad?” he mumbles sleepily, raising his hand to Jack’s face.

“Yeah, it’s me Matty.” Jack takes Matt’s hand and guides it to his cheek. “I’m okay.”

“You lost,” Matt says a little later, when he’s satisfied nothings _too_ broken.

“Yeah.” Jack winces as Matt prods at the stitches near his eye. “I did.” He’s surprised, honestly, when a second later, he has his arms full of Matt hugging him as hard as he can. “Wha-?”

“Thank you,” Matt says earnestly. “ _Thank you_.”

“You knew kid?” Jack asks, surprised but really feeling like he shouldn’t be.

Jack can feel Matt’s nod against his shoulder. “I overheard,” he says quietly. “You could’ve won but did it for me. _Thank you.”_ His shoulders start to shake and Jack can feel the wetness on his shoulder.

“It’s okay, Matty. I’m okay. We’re okay,” he reassures, holding him tight.

 

After he sends Matt off to bed (“No complaining, little man,” he says at the formidable pout, “you’ve got Sunday school in the morning.”), Jack sits heavy at the table and takes a long drink from his bottle of scotch. He’s not the _best_ dad, he knows—having your kid stitch you up after a fight isn’t a _great_ parenting method—but he’s _trying_. And he’s going to stick around as long as he can and that’s got to earn him some kind of points, right?

**Author's Note:**

> I just want a million words of Jack being around throughout Matt's childhood and helping him figure out ways to deal when the senses get to be too much (rubbing soothing circles on his temples and reciting passages from Matt's favorite books. Jack can't say he really _gets_ that Thurgood Marshall guy but he's got a few things memorized).
> 
> And this makes my bingo!!!!
> 
> [Come say hi on tumblr!](http://www.keepitdreamin.tumblr.com)


End file.
